Pros Plan To Lower Tennis' Status Level

July 2, 1986|By Tom Pinnock of The Sentinel Staff

Tennis pros across the country are attempting to make the sport of the elite available to elementary and middle-school students everywhere.

Realizing that expensive equipment and a lack of courts prevent many youngsters from learning how to play the game, members of the United States Tennis Association have developed a series of programs that can be taught at school -- using parking lots, volleyball nets and donated equipment.

For Seminole County, it all begins in August when physical education teachers from 25 schools will attend USTA workshops to learn how to teach youngsters the game's fundamentals. They will also receive curriculum materials and a hefty assortment of used rackets and balls.

The program will get under way in Orange County in August 1987, and in Brevard starting in October. It started in Lake County in February.

''Tennis in the schools is a great way for the 50 million schoolchildren in this country to discover the lifetime benefits of tennis,'' said Eve Kraft, of USTA Education and Research Center in Princeton, N.J.

Cindy Harkins, a Seminole County recreation supervisor helping to organize the USTA program in Seminole, Orange, Lake and Brevard counties, said that a healthy grassroots program also should help the U. S. produce the kinds of world-class players that are coming out of such countries as Sweden, West Germany and Czechoslovakia.

She said national programs in those countries are producing legions of players who are threatening to dominate the sport internationally.

There are reasons beyond developing future American stars to battle the Europeans. Even if the youngsters never get beyond the recreational level, Harkins says, tennis offers a child something to do for a lifetime.

But the program will require help. Harkins estimates that 2,500 rackets will be needed in Seminole County alone. So far, she has collected 350.

Most of the donated rackets are antique models, but that's no problem, Harkins said. They will do just fine in getting the young players started.

Boxes for donating used equipment are in most area tennis clubs. Donations are tax deductible, and tax forms can be picked up from club pros.

''Tennis is a healthy outlet for children,'' Harkins said. ''But without equipment, they'll never learn how to play the game.''